Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Only four more days until Oblivion ships. Bethesda has been releasing “Countdown to Oblivion” short trailers showcasing little blips of gameplay, which surely whet my appetite.

Guitar Hero was a pretty big game at Digital Overload last weekend. My girlfriend tried it out and enjoyed it, so when we got back I bought it for her. And now, after months of resisting, (Mookie is gonna love this) I find myself rocking out with a little plastic guitar. Reminds me of my 80’s rock Hott Lixxâ„¢ days. I’ve ordered a second controller so we can jam in multiplayer. I play a mean Iron Man.

So I talked to a lot of fans yesterday about G.R.A.W. multiplayer, and I think I’ve pinpointed my problem with it.

If I wanted to play Halo, I’d pop in Halo. What I’m looking for from Ghost Recon is a stealthier, tactics based game. And most of the games people create on XBL have respawns set to infinite. So with no penalty for deaths, everyone just ends up running headlong into an all out firefight. The game becomes just a plain old shooter, and the controls are too slow for it to be a shooter I enjoy.

So obviously my cup of tea, so to speak, is a team-based game (either co-op or team vs team) with either no respawn timer, or a very low number of respawns. So you get the teamwork, plus a reason to move slowly and surely, instead of just running into a gun fight.

This got me thinking even further. Some long time readers of the website may recall a little something called CAD GameDays. I also mentioned them in the second CAD book (like how I segued that plug in there?) if you’ve read it. Basically, every Saturday I used to choose an online game at random, schedule a time, and play with CAD fans for a few hours. Well, eventually I got really busy, and they stopped happening, and we haven’t had one for a couple of years now.

Lately I’ve been making an effort to take Saturdays off. I’m trying to be more disciplined with my work schedule, and making sure I take every Saturday off is one of the measures I’ve taken. So I thought since I have Saturdays off… why not try and do a CAD GameDay every once in a while? If we can keep it informal, and fun, it won’t turn into work. It will just be hanging out and playing video games, which is what I do on my days off anyway.

So on Saturday, between (at least) 3-5pm EST, I’m going to be on XBL playing G.R.A.W. If you want you can jump online, look up my username, and join the game I’m involved with. Most likely I’ll be hosting games along the parameters I described above (team-based, little or no respawns). So if that type of play doesn’t interest you, I would suggest not showing up to complain. Go play Halo.

Now just a couple of notes. This is still my day off. First and foremost, I’m there to play games and have some fun. I won’t be answering questions about the comic, etc. If you have a question, go ahead and email me. Saturday is about blowing some shit up, and shootin’ the shit.

Second, it’s first come first served. I can’t be worried about making sure everyone is getting an equal chance to play. I’d love to, but if I try then it becomes work, and as I mentioned, it’s my day off. I would hope that most people will play a few rounds, and then bow out to give someone else a chance to play, but I won’t be asking anyone to leave. So if you don’t manage to get a spot it play, I apologize in advance. Hopefully I’ll be doing this (somewhat) regularly, if all goes well, so you may have a shot to play the next time.

If this becomes a regular thing again (sorry, just trying to cover all topics I suspect will show up in my mailbox), I will be choosing games at random depending on what I’m in the mood to play that week. So if you don’t have G.R.A.W. this weekend, next weekend I may want to play F.E.A.R. (gah, too many acronyms!). So just be patient. Like I said, I want to keep this as informal and laid-back as possible.

So that said, I hope to see some of you tomorrow on XBL!